Critical Review by John Chamberlain

SOURCE: "The Prentice Days of Frank Norris," in The New York Times Book Review, Vol. 80, May 3, 1931, pp. 2,10.

In the following review of Frank Norris of "The Wave," Chamberlain traces the themes of Norris's novels to those of writings he did for The Wave.

When he was a student at the University of California, in 1891 and 1892, Frank Norris contributed two stories to a San Francisco weekly called The Wave. One of the tales was so horrifying to the literary taste of the time that a friend of Mr. Norris senior stopped him on the street one day and said: "If I had a son who wrote a story like that, I'd have him put out of the world in a lethal chamber." At least that is the way Charles G. Norris, Frank's brother, recalls the anecdote. The wording, Charles intimates, may...